The Cross : You are preparing to open the National Meetings of Catholic Prison Chaplaincy from October 10 to 13 in Lourdes. What is at stake in these meetings?
Bruno Lachnitt : It is an event which takes place every six years and which brings together all the Catholic chaplains of penitentiary establishments in France. We have 760 Catholic chaplains, 65% of whom are lay men and women, 18% priests, 10% deacons and 7% religious men and women. In recent years, the proportion of priests has been decreasing and that of women is increasing.
This year, we will reflect on the issue of communion within the Catholic chaplaincy, because the internal landscape of chaplaincy has evolved considerably in recent years. When I started, eleven years ago, the chaplains were mainly from social Catholicism, from the Workers’ Mission, from a Church very marked by the breath of the post-Council. Today we see a significant diversity of sensitivities, spiritual and liturgical currents within the chaplaincy. The challenge is that this diversity does not become a source of division but is experienced as a wealth.
The director of the Mayotte prison resigned on Wednesday October 9 to warn of prison overcrowding in his establishment. Are you, like him, concerned about the living conditions of inmates in French prisons?
B. L. : Of course, France breaks new records every month in terms of prison overpopulation. You have to wonder how long this will be bearable. What’s surprising is that it doesn’t explode. Not only do the prisoners live in undignified conditions but, moreover, the system is dysfunctional, since everything – the staff, the budget, access to care – is set up for a theoretical number of prisoners, which is largely exceeded. When you get to 180% occupancy, nothing can work properly.
We, the chaplains, have the chance to visit the inmates in their cells. Last week for the first time, I saw four names on the door of a cell designed for two people. At the arriving quarter, there can be three inmates in a single-person cell, with two bunk beds and a mattress on the floor, in 9 m2. We must understand what it is like to live 22 hours a day in 9 m2with two people you didn’t choose!
Not only is it undignified – which doesn’t seem to move many people – but, what’s more, it’s counterproductive: in these conditions how can you expect prison to be a place of reintegration, of amendment, where the detained person goes towards the best of himself and comes out without reoffending? We are constantly talking about security, but this system does not produce security: it generates contained violence, accumulated frustration… What will this produce at the end?
Do you think this system increases the risk of recidivism?
B. L. : We know very well that the recidivism rate is much higher among incarcerated people than among people serving alternative sentences, such as community service or work placements. In recent years, prevention has been completely neglected in favor of repression. Prison is the broomstick of society. We would like it to resolve the problems that we were unable to resolve upstream. But it would be naive to imagine that by putting a problem behind four walls, for a while, in unworthy conditions, it will come out resolved! “We can measure the degree of civilization of a society by visiting its prisons,” said Dostoyevsky.
What is the basis of your mission as prison chaplains?
B. L. : The DNA of Catholic chaplaincy could be summed up in these words of Saint Vincent de Paul: “Do not deal with prisoners if you are not prepared to become their subjects and students. Those we call miserable are the ones who must evangelize us. After God, it is to them that I owe the most. » So of course, going to prison school doesn’t mean learning how to cut up shit bars. This means not coming to them as knowledgeable people to teach them a lesson, but entering into a relationship of fraternity.
Sometimes people ask me: “Are there conversions in prison? » I always answer: “Yes, ours. » We always run the risk of thinking that we are going to bring them something, but we do not bring them God, we learn it with them. The chaplain’s primary intention is to support the person towards the best of themselves.
Prisoners are often people whose image of themselves is only reflected in the act that led them to prison, as if people were reducible to one act! The first thing we do is believe that there is something good in this person and help them realize it. We strive to live this objective as Catholic chaplains, because we are convinced that a profound life change occurs through the spiritual dimension.
